The Final Season of ‘Stranger Things’ Is All About Delayed Gratification

Still, these first four (occasionally supersized) episodes—two are over an hour, and the fourth almost an hour and a half—aren’t fully satisfying in and of themselves. They exist to reacquaint us with this world after our prolonged hiatus, and to set up the explosive showdown to come. There are a number of eye-popping set pieces which had me gripped, but you can also feel the Duffer brothers holding back, pulling firmly on the reins to ensure they don’t peak too early.

Part of the joy of that “Running Up That Hill” sequence from last time was that it came seemingly out of nowhere, slap bang in the middle of season four, volume one. It wasn’t a mid-season cliffhanger or a let’s-go-all-out finale, but instead, proof that this was a show which wanted to over-deliver with every single episode. The result was culture shifting—frenzied speculation, record-breaking viewing figures, Kate Bush flying up the charts. So far, nothing in this new installment comes close.

With this last blockbuster outing, you can’t help but wish that the creators had just gone for it, all guns blazing, from the start—particularly considering the length of the episodes, how expensive they must have been to make, and the time it’s taken for us to get here. But, of course, the hope remains that the payoff will be worth it come the season’s second half.